Robert A. Johnson has 23 years of experience in commercial litigation, much of it relating to bankruptcy. He has spent significant time in the past several years advising clients regarding broker insolvency and counterparty risk. In 2007, early in the financial crisis, he was a co-author of an Akin Gump client alert entitled, “What Would Happen To Your Account Holdings If Your Prime Broker Failed?”
Since 2008, Mr. Johnson has devoted much of his practice to the representation of the official committee of unsecured creditors of Washington Mutual, Inc., the holding company of the largest bank to fail in U.S. history. Early aspects of this case involved the interplay of commercial bankruptcy issues and FDIC failed bank receivership issues, as well as contested setoff arguments regarding the Debtors’ cash deposits at another financial institution. Litigation tasks have included extensive discovery, motion practice, and appeals; adversary proceedings involving esoteric financial instruments; and two contested confirmation trials. Mr. Johnson also has played a central role on the Akin Gump team in the negotiation of a multiparty settlement agreement, the plan of reorganization, and plan-related documentation.
Mr. Johnson's other matters involving complex financial issues have included—
- analysis and counseling regarding brokerage issues in connection with the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy and SIPA proceedings
- investigating facts and negotiating with the Madoff SIPA Trustee regarding fraudulent conveyance issues
- litigating against the Enron bankruptcy estate regarding termination and netting of energy trading contracts
- resolving a securities customer’s disputes, in the Refco bankruptcy, regarding repurchase agreements and options
- representing creditors in other bankruptcies regarding valuation of assets sold by debtors
- prosecuting and defending fraudulent conveyance actions in bankruptcies
- defending a commodity futures exchange in a patent infringement suit regarding the electronic trading of commodity futures.
Mr. Johnson received his B.A. with honors in international relations from Stanford University in 1985 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988. While practicing law full time, he also completed an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 2002, with coursework focusing on corporate finance, valuation and financial statement analysis.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the New York Bar.